What is your favorite book of all time and why?
This is too hard. I am a reading fanatic and love so many books.
I love Into the Forest by Jean Hegland.
I love The Stand by Stephen King
I love Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence by Robert Pirsig
I love The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight by Thom Hartman. ( Lifechanging).
I am trying to stop. I just, simply can't stop. There are too many wonderful books. I haven't even scratched the surface.
Loved The Stand!
The SOURCE, BY James Michener
I love that book. I have an ancient, beat up paperback copy and the hardback. It is a great book. I loved Centennial too.
James Michener was a great historian as well as writer. Did you know they made a Broadway musical out of one of his works? One of the most popular of all time.
The Stranger - Albert Camus
I read it in third grade, had a lasting effect.
Have had a copy since and re-read it occasionally.
....
Also the Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men.
Taught Of Mice and Men and gained a new, abiding appreciation of Steinbeck. I should re-visit him.
Definitely. It's classic writing for a reason.
For me, I'd have to say TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST, by Richard Henry Dana-for many reasons.
After that, I guess it would be ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE, as the most influential.
Omg! Zen/Motorcycle Maintenance. I stopped shy of the denouement. Thanks for the reminder. I need to finish it.
That would depend on the point I was at in my life. Two examples close together:
1972-73 - Starship Troopers (Heinlein). I was attached to the 1st Cavalry in Vietnam... flying Hueys.
1973-75 - The Teachings of Don Juan (Castaneda). I was assigned to the ASA at Ft. Huachuca, AZ. Again, flying Hueys.
H. P. Lovecraft: The Complete Collection. Because I had incredibly realistic lucid dreams when I was growing up before I knew what that was and when I first came across his Dream series stories I flipped out with so many of the things we wrote about. I could relate.
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen is my favorite book of all time. I know she was a European Colonialist by birth and circumstance, but I am haunted forever by some of the passages from that novel. I'll never leave it entirely behind. I also love all of the works of Jane Austen, and then there is Very Good, Jeeves, and not to mention the incredible world building of the Song of Ice and Fire novels by GRR Martin. I love books in general. I guess I just love too many of them, but these are the ones I return to again and again.
"A Prayer for Owen Meany." It introduced me to literature in a way that other books had failed. Religion is a secondary theme but the story is phenomenal.
Man, I had an obsessive John Irving period. Owen Meany, Hotel New Hampshire, Garp, and another currently escaping memory... I loved Irving.
Ah-ha! Cider House Rules.
A novel called Maybe The Moon by Armistead Maupin. Funny and heartbreaking.
Yes! Maybe the Moon. I’d forgotten the title!
@ki-bee Me too! Tore through them.
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk and the film by David Fincher. I add the film because Chuck openly stated that he thought the film was better than his book and I have to agree, but it was still birthed by his mind.
The book destroyed concepts I was struggling with regarding capitalism and materialism without using the bullshit rose colored glasses that normally came with the debate.
One of my most beloved movies. Gotta read.
The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy. Read it for the first time when I was 15 and it really made an impression. I really like the way Pat Conroy wrote. I was the first time I ever noticed an author's prose style.
Yes! Conroy!
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
The thing is, although I enjoy the book tremendously, I can't claim it's a great work of literature. And parts of it really haven't stood the test of time well at all. But still, that's the book that really fired up my imagination when I was young. Who wouldn't want to have a devoted time-traveling dragon at their beck and call. This book is the reason I have a lifelong fascination with dragons ... and a dragon tattoo.
I love the Michael Whelan art.
Hm. This is a tough one. If it's 'book I've read more times than any other' it's probably Michael Crichton's 'Sphere' or Jonathan Nasaw's 'The World on Blood.' If it's 'book I enjoyed the most' the answer is either Gaiman and Pratchett's 'Good Omens' or Gaiman's 'The Neverwhere.'
If we're counting anthologies and collections, then I've got to go with my Lovecraft commemorative edition 'Necronomicon' collection.
I have the Necronomicon but haven’t read it yet. I need to!
Oooh, a friend just recommended Good Omens to me. I'm on the waiting list for it with the library.
@RealmOfReality there are sooooo many good stories in it. I couldn't even hope to recommend any one specifically.
@vita it's a great read. They write very well together. The Discworld series is amazing, but it helps to read one that individually interests you first before trying to tackle the series in order because the Rincewind-centered stories are a little more absurd in their narrative than some of the ones centered around the witches or the captain of the guard or the ones about more one-shot characters. Equal Rites and The Truth and Soul Music (there's a really excellent BBC animated miniseries for that one) are where I started.
Funny, I was pretty disappointed by Neverwhere; I thought it was one of Gaiman's weaker books.
@cmadler I never said best. But between the Marquis and Croup and Vandemar I enjoy it a bit more than American Gods, which is a better book in my opinion. But Neverwhere was also an 'I didn't really like the way the BBC handled the show necessarily so I wrote this book when we finished it' book.
I couldn't get into American Gods. Didn't make it through the book. Nor the TV series. Not sure why.
I luxuriated through Hawaii by James Michener the summer of my sixteenth year. The first novel I think I just fell into.
Fiction
Animal farm. Read it when I was 11. First story I'd ever known without a happy ending. First book to make me cry.
Non Fiction
The Selfish Gene. Answered so many questions I'd struggled with regarding evolution and altruism. Explained why there were bad people in the world.
I taught Animal Farm. Another vital book by Orwell.
This is a great place to get some book ideas.
I vacillate between Sons and Lovers by DH Lawrence, fun stuff by Anne Tyler, soap opera stuff like Colony by Anne Rivers Siddons. I was one of the five people who adored Moby Dick.
There are so many classic and contemporary books that I should have read.
I’d love to hear about those. What books do you think a Lit teacher must read?
It's funny, but I don't really read books. I mostly read things online... I'm always reading online.
But to answer your question... In childhood, either 'The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe' or 'The Wizard Of Oz' (the original old version). They are both magical.
Later in life.. 'Two On A Tower' (Thomas Hardy) or a book of short stories by 'E M Forster' because they had an intense romantic quality about them. But both were quite tragic, which I didn't like.